1. Personality Theory & Assessment Chapter 14 Part I
William G. Huitt
Personality Theories
Last revised: May 2005

2. Summary A human being is inherently language using biological social
motivated
patterned
biological
able to be conditioned
sensing & perceiving
emotional
intelligent
knowledge creating
rational thinking
creative thinking 2 2

3. Defining Personality and Traits
Distinctive and relatively stable pattern of behaviors, thoughts, motives, and emotions that characterizes an individual throughout life.
Trait
A characteristic of an individual, describing a habitual way of behaving, thinking, and feeling.

4. Personality Theories Distinctive, unique Commonalities
Patterns of behaviors, thoughts, motives, and emotions that make a person different from others
Commonalities
Dimensions on which all human beings can be measured and compared

5. Temperament
Physiological dispositions to respond to the environment in certain ways.
Ancient Greeks proposed temperaments
Sanguine
Melancholy
Choleric
Phlegmatic
Thomas, Chess, and Birch
Studied 2- to 3-month-old infants on 9 factors and followed them into adolescence and adulthood

6. Temperament Three general types of temperament emerged from the study
Easy (40%) –generally pleasant moods; adaptable; approached new situations and people positively; established regular sleeping, eating, and elimination patterns
Difficult (15%) –generally unpleasant moods; reacted negatively to new situations and people; intense in their emotional reactions; showed irregularity of bodily functions
Slow-to-warm-up (10%) – tended to withdraw; slow to adapt; had a medium mood 2 2

7. Temperament Martin, Wisenbaker and Huttunen
Inhibition (approach-avoidance)
Negative emotionality
Adaptability
Activity level
Task persistence
Similar to the Big Five factors identified in the study of adult personality 2 2

8. Temperament Research indicates that
temperament is strongly influenced by heredity
environmental factors, such as parents’ childrearing style, also affect temperament
temperament is relatively stable over time; the various dimensions of temperament can predict behavioral problems that may appear later in childhood or in adolescence 2 2

9. Personality Theories Psychoanalytic Humanistic Learning
Freud
Neo-Freudians
Carl Jung
Erik Erikson
Alfred Adler
Karen Horney
Humanistic
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Viktor Frankl
Learning
B. F. Skinner
Social Cognition
George Kelly
Walter Mischel
Albert Bandura
Albert Ellis
Transpersonal
Roberto Assagioli
Ken Wilber 2 2

10. Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis
Freud’s term for his theory of personality and his therapy for treating psychological disorders
The conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious
Freud believed that there are three levels of awareness in consciousness: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious 2 2

11. Sigmund Freud The conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious
The thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories of which a person is aware at any given moment
Preconscious
The thoughts, feelings, and memories that a person is not consciously aware of at the moment but that may be brought to consciousness
Unconscious
For Freud, the primary motivating force of behavior, containing repressed memories as well as instincts and wishes that have never been conscious 2 2

12. Sigmund Freud Freud proposed three systems of personality Id
The unconscious system of the personality, which contains the life and death instincts and operates on the pleasure principle
Ego
The rational, largely conscious system of personality, which operates according to the reality principle
Superego
The moral system of the personality, which consists of the conscience and the ego ideal 2 2

13. Sigmund Freud 2 2

14. Sigmund Freud Defense mechanisms
An unconscious, irrational means used by the ego to defend against anxiety; involves self-deception and the distortion of reality
Repression
Involuntarily removing an unpleasant memory or barring disturbing sexual and aggressive impulses from consciousness
Projection
Attributing one’s own undesirable thoughts, impulses, traits, or behaviors to others
Allows people to avoid acknowledging unacceptable traits and thereby to maintain self-esteem, but seriously distorts their perception of the external world 2 2

15. Sigmund Freud Defense mechanisms Denial Rationalization Regression
Refusing to acknowledge consciously the existence of danger or a threatening condition
Rationalization
Supplying a logical, rational, socially acceptable reason rather than the real reason for an action
When people rationalize, they make excuses for, or justify, failures and mistakes
Regression
Reverting to a behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development 2 2

16. Sigmund Freud Defense mechanisms Reaction formation Displacement
Denying an unacceptable impulse, often sexual or aggressive, by giving strong conscious expression to its opposite
Displacement
Substituting a less threatening object for the original object of an impulse
Sublimation
Rechanneling sexual or aggressive energy into pursuits that society considers acceptable or admirable 2 2

17. Sigmund Freud The psychosexual stages of development
A series of stages through which the sexual instinct develops
Fixation
Arrested development at a psychosexual stage occurring because of excessive gratification or frustration at that stage 2 2

18. Sigmund Freud Evaluating Freud’s contribution
Unconscious forces may motivate behavior,
Emphasizing the influence of early childhood experiences on later development
Psychoanalysis is still viewed as a useful therapeutic technique 2 2

19. Carl Jung Disagreed with Freud
the sexual instinct is not the main factor in personality
the personality is not almost completely formed in early childhood 2 2

20. Carl Jung Personality consists of three parts Archetype Ego
the rational, largely conscious system of personality, which operates according to the reality principle
Personal unconscious
all of the thoughts and experiences that are accessible to the conscious, as well as repressed memories and impulses
Collective unconscious
contains the universal experiences of humankind transmitted to each individual; not available to conscious thought
Archetype
Existing in the collective unconscious, an inherited tendency to perceive and respond in particular ways to universal human situations (Joseph Campbell) 2 2

21. Carl Jung Personality functions Temperaments
Extroversion vs Introversion (orientation)
Sensing vs Intuition (data collection)
Thinking vs Feeling (making judgments)
Judging vs Perceiving (preferred function)
Temperaments
SP (sanguine, artist)
SJ (melancholy, guardian)
NT (choleric, rational)
NF (phlegmatic, idealistic) 2 2

22. Alfred Adler
Emphasized the unity of the personality rather than the separate warring components of id, ego, and superego
Maintained that the drive to overcome feelings of inferiority acquired in childhood motivates most of our behavior
Claimed that people develop a “style of life” at an early age – a unique way in which the child and later the adult will go about the struggle to achieve superiority 2 2

23. Erik Erikson Developed theory of socioemotional development
Believed that a healthy adult personality depends on acquiring the appropriate basic attitudes in the proper sequence during childhood and adolescence
Developed lifespan approach to personality development 2 2

24. Karen Horney
Believed that personality could continue to develop and change throughout life
Believed that many of women’s psychological difficulties arise from failure to live up to an idealized version of themselves
To be psychologically healthy, women, she claimed, (and men for that matter) must learn to overcome irrational beliefs about the need for perfection 2 2